Film shines light on lesser-known stories of blacks

Tyrone Young vividly remembers his high school history lessons in East St. Louis, Ill.

Lori Gilbert

Tyrone Young vividly remembers his high school history lessons in East St. Louis, Ill.

Blacks were slaves and they picked cotton. That's what the book said.

"When I went to class, I always felt something was missing; there was something people weren't telling me about who I am," Young said. "Who I am stems from my ancestors."

His people were oppressed slaves, true, but they also were artisans, mathematicians, poets, skilled craftsmen and inventors. Their stories are the subject of his film, "Filling the Gap," a 2009 docudrama nominated in 2011 for an NAACP Image Award.

The film, rather than telling of abused field hands, tells of poet Phillis Wheatley; abolitionist Frederick Douglass; scientist Benjamin Banneker, who made the first wooden clock on American soil; and Elizabeth Keckley, a fashion designer who would become Mary Todd Lincoln's seamstress and friend.

It introduces viewers to a number of talented blacks whose stories aren't found in most history books. It shows the roles they played in the Civil War, as soldiers, spies and runaways who joined Union camps and worked as nurses, cooks, teamsters and builders, or used their knowledge of the countryside to procure food for the soldiers.

Young will show his film at 7 p.m. Sunday at University of the Pacific's Janet Leigh Theatre, followed by a question-and-answer session. He'll repeat the presentation on Monday with a screening of the film at 5 p.m. and question-and-answer session at 6:30 p.m. at Stockton's Cesar Chavez Central Library. Young's appearance is sponsored by the Library and Literacy Foundation as part of its Live from Cesar Chavez! series.

"Getting people to watch the film is a huge challenge," said Young, who unsuccessfully attempted to schedule school visits during his trip here. "You wouldn't think it is, but one of the major setbacks is because people think it's a bunch of 'woe is me' stuff, 'you owe us' stuff. That's not what it's about. It's about accomplishments, how we were able to rise in spirit as a people."

That the stories are not commonly known is understandable, said Caroline Cox, a Pacific history professor who teaches African-American studies.

"Iconic figures become the axis for telling stories," Cox said. "The study of Civil Rights focuses on Martin Luther King, but there were thousands of other community leaders bringing social transformation. We tend not to hear of Medgar Evers, because he was shot and didn't have a recorded speech from the March on Washington. Coming through a K-12 education, you're likely to hear Rosa Parks' and Frederick Douglass' stories but there's so much more."

Young, 45, never figured he'd be the one telling those stories.

He worked in Hollywood beginning in 1992, producing music videos for Tupac Shakur, Luther Vandross and others before moving to Florida to work on "The Grand Ole Opry" television series. In 2004, his feature film, "True Adversity," about two teenagers seeking their selfish parents' love, won best drama at the 2004 New York Independent Film and Video Festival.

He was filming a television commercial at a Civil War re-enactment of the Battle of Olustee, in Florida, when he met Mary Fears, a 76-year-old re-enactor.

"She said, 'Young man with the camera ... you must know a lot about our history,' " Young recalled.

She rattled off the name of one historic figure after another and Young knew none of them.

She and her husband, five years her junior, were the only black re-enactors at the event, except those posing as soldiers.

"When I leave, I'm afraid no one else will be able to tell our stories," she told Young. "We need to do something."

"We?" Young said.

He couldn't break her heart and say no, and he didn't want to lie, so he said he was interested in helping her, but she'd have to wait until after his scheduled trip to Los Angeles.

He called Fears upon his return and she said, "I'm on my way," and arrived at his Orlando home the next day.

Thus began a three-year project, with Fears and her husband putting up their pension to see the project through. Young financed it as well, sometimes stopping production to work on projects that would pay for the docudrama.

It took a year to film it and another year to edit 31/2 hours down 83 minutes with Fears fighting to keep in every story she'd researched.

The finished product, Young said, left Fears "just elated."

It also profoundly impacted Young, who hopes to make similar films about other ethnic groups that formed America, be they Mexican, Irish, Scottish or any other.

The possibility of encouraging more young people to carry on the legacies of their forefathers beckons.

"When I first got into filmmaking, I wanted to do something that would have a lasting impression on people," Young said. "By the grace of God, I found Mrs. Fear. Our paths crossed because they were meant to cross. We were able to make something to educate, something of substance."